This patent relates generally to firearms, and, more particularly, to grenade launchers and methods to secure a grenade launcher to a firearm.
The US grenade launcher M 203 is known. The M 203 is designed to be mounted under the barrel of the Colt M 16 AI rifle. A separate front gunstock or hand guard is assigned to the grenade launcher. This hand guard is attached in place of the original hand guard of the rapid fire rifle (see also German patent DE 35 40 641 C2).
A force-receiving fixed bearing is attached at the gas withdrawal nozzle of the rifle. A force-transferring coupling device of the grenade launcher engages the force-receiving fixed bearing in order to pass its recoil forces into the rifle. A movable bearing is attached close to the reloading device. Thus, the movable bearing is attached behind the fixed bearing. The M 203 grenade launcher is not attachable to a rapid firearm whose design does not agree with that of the above-mentioned M 16 A1.
For example, a shorter version of the M 16 AI rifle has been released. This shorter version of the firearm has a shorter hand guard than the standard model. The shorter hand guard is needed because the force-receiving fixed bearing is closer to the reloading device and, therefore, closer to the movable bearing in the shorter model than in the standard model. The grenade launcher M 203 cannot be attached to the shortened version of the rifle. Moreover, the M 203 grenade launcher may not be easily modified for use with the shortened version of the M 16 because the magazine of the standard version of the rifle serves as handle for actuating the grenade launcher trigger. Therefore, the position of the magazine, and, thus, the reloading device, relative to the grenade launcher cannot be changed.
An intermediate adapter to adapt the M 203 grenade launcher to weapons other than the standard M 16 rifle is not possible because of the associated tolerances. The sighting device of the grenade launcher is attached to the rifle itself, so that the mentioned tolerances between the rifle and the associated sighting device translate into aiming errors.
Similar issues apply to the grenade launcher which is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,137.